Even on mainly solo podcasts like mine, podcast guests are so important, not only for your show growth, but also just for giving your audience someone else's perspective. Not to mention - it gives you a break from being the brains behind all the content in your business. Podcast guest interviews are also a fun and exciting way to meet other people, network, make strong connections, and potentially even make lifelong friendships through people you meet.
On top of all that, podcast interviews can also help your audience grow exponentially on your podcast. But here’s the problem. You as the host are stoked. You love it and you (obviously) hope your guests will share when it airs. But then you look at their social media, their email marketing, wherever, and you see that not only did they not post about the episode themselves, but then maybe they're not even re-sharing what you've posted.
And then you wonder:
- Did they dislike the interview?
- Did they just get too busy?
- Did I not help them enough?
Besides any disappointment you might feel, the bigger thing that's worth noting here is that guest interviews are a way to grow your show BECAUSE when your guest shares, you're getting your podcast and your business in front of that guest audience.
So when they don't share, that disappointment is natural. Plus, in some ways, it makes the episode less effective for you from a marketing perspective. In today's episode, I'm going to share three hacks for how to get your podcast guests to actually share about the episode when they air, so that you are not the only one promoting things. You want them to be promoting it alongside you. This way, you can make these guest episodes work harder for your business, so that you see more results on your podcast.
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Before I get to these three hacks that I'm so excited to share with you, I want to say this is stuff I actually teach in my course Podcast Success Blueprint, and good news - It is opening next week. Podcast Success Blueprint will be open to the public for you to join starting on Monday, January 29th. So mark your calendar. I've actually already had around 65 people in the program who are already taking the course and getting results. It’s been so fun to see!
Here’s what Gabriela, a student inside Podcast Success Blueprint, has to say!
Thank you for really peeling back the layers of how you successfully podcast and delivering such value. I've been in the course creation world for some time and I've seen hundreds of courses and most are fluff, not yours. I give it five stars and recommend it to anyone wanting to start or improve their podcast. Podcast Success Blueprint is one of the most well thought out and meaty courses I've taken, and it propels immediate action.
My podcast is the one thing I’ve been consistently doing in my business for years that has led to:
- More templates and course sales
- More email subscribers
- Over $280,000 in affiliate revenue
- Opportunities to speak on stages and guest on massive podcasts
- More confidence in myself as a business owner
That’s right. The Breakthrough Brand Podcast has become my number one lead source, driver of affiliate revenue, my “SEO-Secret,” and the center of the effective content marketing web I’ve built over the years.
And now I’m sharing everything (if you’ve ever learned from me, you know I don’t hold back on anything!) I know about building a successful, streamlined, sustainable podcast.
I started creating Podcast Success Blueprint as a mini-course (LOL), but it quickly grew into a robust, value-packed course that truly covers EVERYTHING you need to know to start, produce, market, and monetize your podcast!
1. Make quality graphics/videos that work with their branding
You have to give them something to share. I know this seems obvious, but too often, we don’t provide any assets and instead just expect the guest to willingly share when we say to without giving them anything to share. You want to make it as easy on them as possible, and even more specifically I usually will mold my graphics to fit their branding colors a little, especially if it’s super different from my own brand colors.
In my opinion, this also typically makes the graphics just look better overall because if they give you photos of them where they are wearing brown and blue, but then your brand colors are hot pink and yellow fonts, it’s not going to look good. PLUS - it makes them more likely to share because they don’t have to change anything to make it work.
I also think we’re in a time in the world where video content is so key for podcast interviews. Giving your guests a quality short video where they are presented as an expert being interviewed by you is amazing, and will likely make them want to share. I love it when I am on someone else's podcast, and they give me this really cool strong video that's showing me teaching on something that I care about, and again, is setting me up as an expert. It makes me very likely to want to share that
You can do this easier than you might think. I used to do these for IGTVs back when that was a thing, and it took so long. We were using professional video editing software (two different ones!), and then adding text that we were physically typing onto the video. I also had to pay super close attention during interviews to what time-stamp things were said that I wanted into clips.
Using Riverside for Podcast Video Content
Now, it’s so much easier. I record interviews on Riverside, a podcasting software. During recordings, whenever my guest says something that I feel is super impactful, I mark it with a clip marker in Riverside. Typically, I end up with 10 to 15 clip markers per interview. I also keep a note on paper about specific markers, like the one at 26 minutes, which might be particularly good for future use. My podcast editor then selects some clips too. So we have a LOT of video content for each episode and I can share multiple clips with my guest.
On top of that, Riverside now has a feature called Magic Clips, which uses AI to select clips and automatically create everything for you. You can add text to the video, rearrange, cut, and correct transcription captions for accuracy, including fixing misspellings. It’s such a time saver. If that’s something you want to try, use code ELIZABETH for a discount on your subscription.
And just as a reminder, why do we want our guests to share? Because when they share to their Instagram stories, collaborate with you on a reel, post about it themselves, share to their whole email list, you are getting your podcast in front of their audience. Then, you’ll be getting new listeners who are coming to your show to hear that guest, but then will hopefully stick around and keep listening to all your episodes. Eventually, they might even buy from you! It's a whole cycle that is so worth pursuing.
Read More: 3 Real Ways To *Actually* Make Money From Your Podcast
2. Share those graphics with your guest in advance of the episode airing
Next, you need to share those graphics and videos in advance. Your guest probably doesn’t know when it’ll air )or if you told them an estimated date, it’s unlikely they marked it on their calendar). As a podcast host, often we do interviews that don’t air for weeks or months… so you need to tell your guest this is coming!
I’ve been a guest on many shows, so I feel pretty confident in saying that too often podcast hosts just email the day of the airing. Or worse, they just share and want you to repost it. That’s really not enough lead time to really work it into your promotion strategy.
What I teach (and do) in Podcast Success Blueprint is email the guest one week prior to the airing date, and share everything they need to know (with graphics provided). At the same time we do this, we also schedule in advance another email to go out to them on the day the episode goes live. We also ASK them to share!
In Podcast Success Blueprint, I give you exact examples of how to do this and the steps in the process so you know what to say and so there’s no confusion! For us and other Podcast Success Blueprint students using my processes, this really does just become a part of your podcast process that you or a team member will do. When it’s part of your process, it won’t be skipped, and that really helps the episode get promoted.
3. DM Your Guests the Day Of With The Graphics!
I think this is literally one of my favorite podcast hacks, but on the day that it airs, you want to DM the guest with the graphics and videos on Instagram (or wherever you're hoping the guests will share). You don’t have to DM all of them, but this makes it nice and quick for them to post! I usually say something along the lines of, “I wanted to go ahead and send you these so you can easily just save them to your phone and post them on Instagram if you want. I'd love to see you share about it.”
On top of that, I'll often even tell the guests, I'm going to post a reel about this at noon today, and I'm going to invite you to collaborate on it. It really just makes for a nice touch point and a reminder on the podcast air date. It makes it a lot less work for them.
Also, always tag them in everything so they can choose what to re-share (and what they don't want to) from what you've posted. If you're using Instagram stories to do this, you could actually tag them and then drag it off the screen and it still works. So if you're thinking, I don't want their handle on every single graphic, you can make it really small and then drag it off the screen and it still counts as a tag. That's another thing I feel like people often miss. Sometimes I go on shows myself and the host of the podcast has posted a bunch of great videos of them talking about the episode, but they don't tag me in any of them. I wish I would have been able to share them!
That's where we really bring this back to the first tip of doing things in their branding. When I'm inviting a guest to collaborate on the reel, for example, I will try to make sure that the reel cover is something that I think they would like to show up on their feed. The collaboration means that this reel that you've created is going to go on their profile permanently, so they need to like the way it looks.
Read More: 5 Expert Tips For Becoming An Unforgettable Podcast Guest In 2023
Growing your podcast by having podcast guests share about the episode
So that’s it! Three hacks to get your podcast guests to actually share (and you can tell I actually shared more than three in all of that because again, there's a whole lesson in Podcast Success Blueprint on this).
Here’s a quick recap of the three hacks that will encourage your podcast guests to share:
- Make quality graphic and videos (and make them work with their branding)
- Share the graphics and videos with your guests IN ADVANCE of the episode airing
- DM your guests the day of with the graphics and videos (and invite them to collaborate on what you share!)
I love interviews and while I don’t do a TON of interviews, but when I do, I do them really intentionally with a lot of strategy and research behind them. I teach all that in detail in Podcast Success Blueprint so if you are someone who already has a podcast and things are going well but the guest interviews are getting to me, or the systems are hard and it's taking too much time, or you’re ready to learn how to get help with a team, I teach ALL of that inside. It really is an advanced podcast course. I would love to see you inside!
Links Mentioned:
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January 23, 2024
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